Speeches

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, the numbers and requirements of prevention policies are certainly indispensable, especially for all the countries of the Mediterranean basin. But you rightly referred to the investments that need to grow and the need to upgrade the firefighting fleet. I can't hide the fact that there are some doubts. There is concern that the 600 million made available for the purchase of twelve Canadairs, which should perhaps be delivered in 2027, are not enough. And there is also the perplexity that we have turned to a technology that is highly obsolete compared to the needs of using the satellite mechanism and artificial intelligence. Then we welcome, if it is really maintained, the deadline of 2027 for the delivery of these twelve vehicles that will have to strengthen the firefighting fleet, but to the Commission, to Europe, all the States that live in a condition of growing emergency, next to the issue of fires, ask for something more, ask for European intervention, ask for European projects, ask for more investments, and on this we expect adequate answers from the new Commission.

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, this session opened with a tribute to the countries affected by the recent floods in the East and it is tonight, in Italy, still in Emilia Romagna, that a flood has already led to over 1 000 displaced persons. Drought is the reciprocal of the same phenomenon. There is an urgent need to strengthen the European civil protection apparatus and reform the rules for access to the Solidarity Fund, which must be larger and faster, while today it is only a form of partial relief for public budgets. The European Environment Agency estimated the economic impact of climate disasters in the years 2021 and 2022 at EUR 110 billion; The weight was higher in 2023 and will be higher again in 2024. In Sicily, my region, the damage to farmers has already exceeded 3 billion euros and the Italian government is intervening through the Commissioner for Drought to build desalination plants and more dams. There are resources for the day-to-day management of cohesion policies, but the ordinary is no longer sufficient. In conclusion, we need a response that complements the current instruments with the creation of a European fund for the prevention and protection of the territory with a multiannual value. Only then will we be able to give answers to farmers and local communities.